NKY in national eye for U.S. Senate primary

Sen. Mitch McConnell waves to supporters as he arrives with his wife, Elaine Chao, at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport for a campaign appearance. Chao is a former U.S. secretary of labor.(Photo: Photos by Patrick Reddy/The Enquirer)Buy Photo

HEBRON – Kentucky voters Tuesday will end a contentious and nationally watched Republican U.S. Senate primary – one in which the two main candidates coveted GOP-rich Northern Kentucky.

Six states hold primaries Tuesday, and several feature tea party-backed insurgents against establishment Republicans. Kentucky's is the marquee race, since it pits the U.S. Senate's Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, against a well-funded challenger. It could also provide clues as to how the winner might fare against what's expected to be a stiff challenge from Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in November.

Matt Bevin, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, talks with supporters at his Florence campaign headquarters.(Photo: The Enquirer/Patrick Reddy)

For almost a year, Republican Senate candidate Matt Bevin has argued U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell is not conservative enough and has been in Washington too long. McConnell, first elected to the Senate in 1984,has hit back by questioning Bevin's character, including enlisting the wife of former U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis to record an automated call describing a rude phone call she had with Bevin.

Since Bevin announced his candidacy in July 2013, the race has garnered headlines across the country and was lampooned on Comedy Central's "Colbert Report." Cockfighting became a central issue when Bevin attended a rally to legalize the sport in which roosters fight to the death. He later said he doesn't personally support cockfighting.

McConnell, Bevin woo NKY Monday

Both Bevin and McConnell made last-minute stops by plane Monday in Northern Kentucky to rally voters.

The support of tea party activists in Northern Kentucky helped sweep U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie into office over the past three years, and both Bevin and McConnell hope to capture those votes.

McConnell and his wife, Former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, flew into the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to address a small crowd of politicians and political junkies, including Boone County Judge-executive Gary Moore, state Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Taylor Mill, state Rep. Diane St. Onge, R-Lakeside Park, and state Rep. Adam Koenig, R-Taylor Mill.

His trip came a few days after the Boone County GOP chairman endorsed Bevin.

McConnell remained inscrutable when asked by The Enquirer after his speech about his reaction to Boone County GOP chairman Brett Gaspard's endorsing Bevin over McConnell. Boone County is a key Republican battleground in Northern Kentucky, itself a wellspring of Republican votes.

"Look, the primary is going to be over tomorrow night, and we're going to all get together and make sure Barack Obama doesn't get a vote out of Kentucky in the U.S. Senate next year and Harry Reid doesn't continue to be majority leader," McConnell said. "We're all going to be together starting tomorrow night."

"This year, we are one step away from making him Kentucky's first majority leader since Alben Barkley," Chao said.

Leading in the polls by as much as 32 points, McConnell continued to focus his comments on the need for Republicans to pick up six seats nationwide. That would give the GOP a Senate majority and make him the majority leader. McConnell believes the GOP has a good chance to pick up seven seats.

"Kentucky is ground zero in the war against moving America in a different direction," McConnell said. "We've seen it all here. No state has fared worse during the Obama years than ours. They've been after everything we do."

Bevin held a rally Friday afternoon at his Florence campaign headquarters. Tea party organizations, including the national Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund and United Kentucky Tea Party, have endorsed Bevin.

Bevin on Friday told his supporters that he has a better chance to defeat Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes in the fall. A Courier-Journal Bluegrass Poll released on Sunday that showed McConnell leading Bevin 55 to 35 percent also showed only 39 percent of Bevin voters would support McConnell. Of the 61 percent of Bevin voters who wouldn't support McConnell, 25 percent would cross party lines to vote against McConnell, the Courier-Journal reports.

He said President Barack Obama won by default because of a lack of enthusiasm for Republican candidate Mitt Romney. That would happen with McConnell as the GOP candidate, Bevin said.

"If we don't have passion and enthusiasm on our side, if we don't have energy and something new and fresh on our side, we lose by default," Bevin said.

Tea party: 'We've changed the narrative'

Several tea party-endorsed candidates are struggling in Tuesday's Republican congressional primaries in Georgia, Kentucky and Idaho. In each state, however, the "establishment" Republican candidates have emphasized their conservative credentials.

Democrats say the Republican candidates who are trying to give their party control of the Senate will prove too far right for centrist voters in the November election.

Crucial to Republicans' efforts to gain six Senate seats and control of the chamber is holding Kentucky and Georgia against well-funded Democrats. Six states hold primaries Tuesday. Georgia, Kentucky and Oregon have closely watched Republican contests for Senate.

In Kentucky, tea partyers would love to knock off McConnell, a 30-year senator they see as too accommodating to Democrats.

McConnell, caught off guard by the tea party movement in 2010, has scrambled to win support from conservatives who dislike compromise. He quickly allied himself with Sen. Rand Paul, who defeated McConnell's hand-picked candidate in the 2010 primary.

In February, McConnell voted against raising the debt ceiling, a vote that past party leaders often swallowed to avert a government default.

Tea party-driven attacks on federal spending have sent Republicans hurrying to tighter-fisted ground.

"We've already changed the narrative, and the Republican Party is running on the principle of limited government," said conservative activist Matt Kibbe, who has feuded with McConnell as political chief of FreedomWorks. "Now we have to figure out what to do with a seat at the table."

The Associated Press contributed

Also on the ballot

In addition to Mitch McConnell and Matt Bevin, the Republican U.S. Senate primary features three other candidates, Brad Copas, Chris Payne and Shawna Sterling, who haven't mounted much of a challenge.

Alison Lundergan Grimes also has three lesser-known Democratic opponents in Burrel Farnsley, Gregory Leichty and Tom Recktenwald, but Alison Lundergan Grimes is expected to win easily.

Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Kentucky primaries are closed primaries that only allow people registered to a political party before Election Day to vote in that party's primary.